IGN: When you were making the decision to release it in four parts and have each part come out a few months from the next part, was there ever a concern that that might alienate any players who feel that they couldn't afford to keep up with the series, or that that would be too many games too soon?

Matsuyama: We knew from the beginning that there would be some kids who, money-wise, they say that they can't afford it if it's every three months. But what we wanted to do was, we wanted to create a game that, and with the different mediums, so if they can only afford one game in three months that this would be the top game that they want to buy.

IGN: What were some other role-playing games that served as inspiration while developing and creating .hack.

Matsuyama: Not really RPGs, but MMORPGs, the online games, we've researched almost all of them for this game; Phantasy Star Online, Final Fantasy, Ultima Online. All of those.

IGN: Are there games, or even movies or books that also might have served as inspiration for .Hack?

Matsuyama: Because we have creators like Mr. [Kazunori] Ito who worked on Ghost in the Shell and Avalon, and Mr. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, who was a character designer for [Neon Genesis] Evangelion, so there's a lot of influence from them.

IGN: I think that leads to my next question. We were interested in who did the character designs. If you could talk a little bit about him and what he worked on, and what he contributed to this game.

Matsuyama: Mr. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, who is the character designer, he actually works for an animation studio called Gainex. He did the character designer for Neon Genesis Evangelion and Nadia, I don't remember the US release name. Basically a person who doesn't usually get involved with games, but we had the great opportunity to work with him for .hack

IGN: And I have a similar question about the composer, and what they had worked on before, and what they had contributed.

Matsuyama: Are you talking about the game, or the animation?

IGN: The game.

Matsuyama: The music for the game is basically handled by our sound team called BooHooOoo. Basically two guys and one girl. A three person unit.

IGN: Why are they called BooHooOoo?

Matsuyama: One of the guys is 185 cm, and 185 kg, so basically the names of the three little pigs in Japan is Boo, Hoo, and Ooo, so that's where it comes from.

IGN: We have two last questions for you. Who is the composer for the animation?

Matsuyama: The composer for the animation is Mrs. Yuki Kajura. She worked with the animation director, Koishi Mashita on other animated pieces. And for .hack, we wanted something that's unique for dot.hack, so we asked her to compose all the music. The opening song is sung by Seesaw, and it's a unit made of Mrs. Kajura and a vocal.

IGN: One last question. For those who've never played dot.hack before, what can you tell them about the game, and why should they pick it up?

Matsuyama: For players who love both animation and videogames, just the names Kazunori Ito of the Ghost In The Shell, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, and of course, Koishi Mashita, should peak their interest in some way. And the fact that it's in four parts, we want to ask the question, "Why wouldn't you be interested in this game?"

Both in Japan and in the Sates, .hack has both the game and tv series, so if you experience both of them, it should peak your interest. In the US, I think they've gone a little beyond the halfway point, airing-wise, so now is a great time to get into it.